The Ashes. No. 5.
Before play on the first morning of the Lord's Test in 1909, England had a change of heart, selection-wise, and asked Walter Brearley to play. He was at the ground but had to decline because "he had not his outfit with him".
Meanwhile, another Bears delegation is down at Lord's today to lobby the ECB again for support about the pavilion plans. There is no chance of obtaining a long-term staging agreement but Warwickshire want to wring every ounce of commmitment they can from Collier, Clarke and co. An awful lot of time, effort and expense is going into these plans - let's hope it all comes together.
Went to see Tony Curtis at the Cheltenham Literary Festival yesterday, by the way. I wanted to ask him if was aware that just a few hundred yards away was the cricket ground at which, in 1913, the conduct and immaculate attire of Warwickshire all-rounder Percy Jeeves impressed PG Wodehouse so much that the author stored the image and, several years later, named a character after Jeeves. I didn't get the chance, sadly, but Curtis was lovely. Eyesight and hearing fading, and in a wheelchair, he still engaged with the audience superbly. The most charming image of all came at the end when he wanted to carry on and was still trying to finish a story for the audience as, no doubt at the behest of his agent or publisher or doctor or wife, he was wheeled away, still laughing and waving over his shoulder.
Very enjoyable. It's not every day you are in the same room with someone who has dated Marilyn Monroe. I hadn't been since the last time I saw Dennis Amiss.
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Brian Halford
Brian Halford’s look at Edgbaston.
And of course there was the case of the author James Albert Wright ("All Creatures Great and Small" et al) who adopted the name James Herriot after the Birmingham City and Scotland goalkeeper of the mid 60's.
Really? Now that I didn't know!
It's a great honour to have someone or something named after you of course - usually.
At Trent Bridge there is the "Gary Sobers Waiting Area". Basically, it is just a bit of nondescript empty space at the bottom of some stairs. Somehow, I can't imagine Sobers being overcome with emotion and describing it as the greatest honour, above even the knightood, ever bestowed upon him.
Wasn't John Lennon named after Winston Churchill? His middle name, that is.
To continue the James Herriot connection,I believe that Mr Wight (not Wright as I stated above) got the idea for the pen-name whilst watching Jim perform for Scotland in a televised football international.
Another point which I'm sure will appeal to you Brian is that Herriot (the goalkeeper) introduced the practice of smearing mud under his eyes during floodlit matches, supposedly to reduce glare.
Sorrento,to be pedantic I believe it was after seeing said custodian on Match of the Day playing for the Blues.
Droitwich Bear, I bow to your greater knowledge. Do you know which game it was ? I was an avid Blues follower in those distant days, and would be interested to know.
sadly not Sorrento, but (even more sadly) I picked up this snippet at the James Herriot museum in Thirsk a couple of years ago. Nice place Thirsk.
Sorrento, it was Man Utd v Blues in the 5th Round of the FA Cup in February 1969. Presume J Herriott had plenty of opportunities to impress the watching James Albert Wright.
I'm not sure how impressed he would have been - (again from memory) the first game at St Andrews had been drawn 2-2 and Man Utd won the replay 6-2.
I may be a bit slow on the uptake here chaps, but I'm not sure I quite grasp Mr Herriot's logic - how, exactly, does smearing mud under your eyes reduce the glare from floodlights?
Thirsk is, indeed, a lovely place. And one of very few six-lettered towns with only one vowel.
Actually, that mud seemed to work pretty well. After that 6-2 defeat at Manchester United, Herriot conceded only five goals in the next nine games.
Maybe he got it wrong at Old Trafford and put the mud in his eyes instead of underneath them.